[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Titlesbook08.jpg” caption=”Titles Bookstore is using its new press to print a variety of books, including a work of new fiction by Kimberly Foottit, a McMaster grad and Titles employee. Photo courtesy of Titles Bookstore. “]Stuck on ideas for inexpensive stocking stuffers? How about a copy of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol? Or a piece of original Canadian fiction?

Titles Bookstores is using its hot new press to reproduce classics (such as the first edition of the Dickens' favourite) under the Classic Titles imprint. A Christmas Carol is the first in a series of low-priced versions the bookstore will start unveiling in the New Year, and it sells for $2.50.

Titles isn't just mining the archives for books to produce: the bookstore is printing a work of new fiction by Kimberly Foottit, a McMaster grad and Titles employee. Her short story, The Reverend and Mrs. Owens, a ghost story set in Nova Scotia, retails for $1.99. Active Reader, by Mark Leslie, another talented Titles employee, is a collection of noir-genre cautionary tales all of which deal with books or bookstores ($1.99). Also in production is the CAW's Women's Committee cookbook, which is being used as a fundraiser for Hamilton Foodshare.

In addition to supporting Titles and local authors, those who purchase one of the bookstore's imprint titles are helping to keep their money working at McMaster.

“You're not only saving money by buying these books,” says Mark Lefebvre, book operations manager for Titles Bookstore. “but the money you spend goes directly into supporting student services on campus.”

Since taking delivery of the Expresso Book Machine a few weeks ago, Lefebvre says traffic into the bookstore has soared. Numerous authors-both on campus and off-have asked about self-publishing their work, and a regional publisher has signed up to do a short-run of one of their titles.

The most frequent requests come from people asking for out-of-print or obscure titles, requests that Lefebvre's staff are struggling to fulfill.

“We need to ensure one-hundred per cent that we are not violating copyright, author or publisher rights,” says Lefebvre. “And that, unfortunately, takes a lot of time to do. However, we offer an excellent special order service in our general books department and also have a great copyright team — so we'll do our best to either find the hard-to-get book that's still in print, or secure the rights to print it using our new technology.”